He ordered a beer as I made eyes at the bartender. I knew the girl and she had never given me the time of day. ‘So, what’s the deal with the secre... service?’ I asked Fisher, skipping over the how-was-your-day pleasantries. ‘What? Oh, company security?’ He picked at the label on his beer and glanced back towards the door. ‘I don’t know. I guess Cliver gets a bit nervous about things.’ He seemed hopeful that I would drop the subject, but he was the one who brought Cliver’s name into it. The. It was a possessive embrace. A knowing embrace. An intimate embrace. The older man was J. Harvey Kincaid and the youth was her own son, Hugh Raven. The realization of the pose hit Ada like a strike of lightning. Kincaid’s elk. She had been Kincaid’s elk the day Frank had died. And it wasn’t her, for her own sake, Kincaid wanted to possess. He just wanted to conquer. And he had done exactly the same thing with her son—just to conquer. It was all in his books. It was the centerpiece of the book. “ ... I think a lot of student miss that kind of subtext. I knew you had a gift for English, I just knew it. I’m so glad we’re doing this.”My eyes were on her hand. Her hand. The one that was touching mine. Her hand ... was on my hand. I could feel her warmth, and it felt good. It felt right. I could feel my cheeks burning as my gaze lifted back up to her eyes. She was still talking, but her voice was just kind of fuzzy. I felt my heart beating faster. She touched me. This was it.She gave me. I hated myself for being so naive.[An old render depicting same scene, different character, early writing]As we approached the end of the trail above the night pasture Virgil and John and Reggie all descended the hill and Lilly went part of the way. She looked glorious as a silhouette against the morning glow of the great mountain at sunrise. I had this compulsion to hug her and get back to feeling her all over me as I stood still, shivered and dribbled.They started calling the cows. “Where’s.